while riding yesterday, at one point I applied the rear brake only...and there was no tension on the foot lever, as if all the hydraulic fluid had drained out. That's probably not good, so I pulled over, tried the rear brake again, which then had normal tension and worked fine...except for a screeching metal on metal sound. Obviously didn't keep doing that for very long!

I pull the brake caliper and pads - one of the pads has lots of life left. The other one has no pad. At all. Just the backing plate.

Clearly the pad had completely separated from the plate, but how could this have happened?

In talking with a mechanic friend, he confirmed that especially on motorcycle pads (which are significantly smaller than car pads), it's been known to happen - the adhesive glue just gives up.

In any event, I definitely made lemonade out of these lemons. The EBC HH pads I installed have significantly more braking power than the stock pads. I was very surprised at how big a difference there was. Being a Galfer loyalist for years however, I'd still like to try out the G1380 rear compound. Realistically however I bet there's no difference.